Hello to all of you, I'm new to the forum and to inline skating. I live in Windsor, I'm sure there are many skaters here but I haven't found them yet.

Anyways I have a pair of really cheap rec skates which I bought on an urge 2 years ago and never really used, and I have since unearthed and made the decision to become good at them before buying good aggressive and skates which is what I want to do.

Here's what I can do:Forward&backwards skating Crossovers both directions, forwards and backHeelstop

What I'm trying to do:Basically reach an intermediate level in freestyle slalom skating

I'd recommend either the Matters (better but more expensive) or the Hyper concretes out of those. I know that some people like the Gyros but I find them rather too slippery. Those hardness measurements don't really tell you much anything how the wheel handles and they vary quite radically - but 84a is a good place to start.

Once you're sure that you're into slalom for the long haul, definitely upgrade your skates. A good stiff slalom skate with a shorter frame will make everything easier.

Thanks ephilips! My frame is about 290mm at the widest part, in with max wheel size of 82mmI think I'll buy the 76mm ones to begin with so it's a 76-82-82-76 setup since I don't want to splash around too much cash to begin with.

pure.egyptian wrote:Anyways I have a pair of really cheap rec skates which I bought on an urge 2 years ago and never really used, and I have since unearthed and made the decision to become good at them before buying good aggressive and skates which is what I want to do.

What I'm trying to do:Basically reach an intermediate level in freestyle slalom skating

If you want to be good at slalom, why are you going to buy aggressive skates? A good pair of slalom skates (e.g. Seba Highs, Powerslide Evo) with help you massively, and yes, rocker them. I used to slalom in Seba FR2s (which are a freestyle skate, but not a specific slalom skate). They were really holding me back, and once I got my Seba Carbon Highs I improved. If you're practising a lot, your skates will hold you back pretty quickly.

Because, eventually, I'd like urban skate (Dunno if that is the proper name). Honestly I'd like to try a bit of everything, but when I get good enough I wish to use my skates more than my bike for transportation etc. mainly because its more fun.

Aggro skates are pretty much exactly the wrong choice for transportation, at least if you want to move at a speed more comparable to cycling than walking. Get something with wheels big enough to be seen by the naked eye

Well we'll see when I get there. Until then I'm waiting for my 76mm wheels to see how much of an effect it'll have on my slaloming, because so far I've had no luck on any of the moves, inline skating is much harder than it looks.

When I started slalom I had been skating for 9 years, and had spent 3 of those playing inline hockey. Even with that base of experience the most basic moves were still taking me at least 10 hours of repetition to get looking reasonably smooth. It is a tough discipline and you've got to be bloody minded about it.